The innovations and related subject matter disclosed herein (collectively referred to as the “disclosure”) generally pertain to retention systems for footwear, with a retention system configured to retain or immobilize an article of footwear relative to a wearer's foot and/or leg when the footwear is worn being but one example of disclosed retention systems. Some disclosed retention systems are particularly, but not exclusively, suitable for securing a sport boot to a wearer's foot and leg for use in a sport where relative movement (e.g., a sliding or a lifting movement) between the boot and the wearer's foot or leg is undesirable. For example, some disclosed retention systems are configured to retain a boot for a snow or a skating sport to a wearer's food and leg, in part by providing a closure system configured to urge the foot into the footbed and simultaneously urge the heel into the heel cup. In such sports, reduced or eliminated relative movement between the boot and the wearer's foot and leg provided by disclosed retention systems can improve power transfer between the wearer
Systems that include a “cam-over” type of clamp positioned over the instep of a boot have been proposed for rigid ski boots. The retractable clamp constricts the rigid shell around the wearer's foot, urging the foot downwardly against the footbed and, to the extent the rigid shell might not be parallel to the footbed, rearwardly into the heel area. Such boots are made of stiff plastic parts and can have specially molded features for routing of tensioning cables to constrict the rigid shell around the wearer's foot. However, such boots may not allow for easy or precise adjustment of the cable tension. The integration of such systems into rigid-shell boot may also pose manufacturing challenges and may be costly.
A snowboard boot shell, in contrast to a rigid shell for a ski boot, typically has opposed, spaced apart edges and relatively lower stiffness. A tongue is usually positioned between and/or behind the opposed edges of the shell. In such boots, a lace or cable-based closure system may be used to draw the opposed edges of the shell together, constricting the shell around a wearer's foot and leg. Integrating and routing cable systems from molded, hard shell ski boots into relatively more flexible snowboard boots has proven difficult, in part, because the spaced apart edges of snowboard boot shells are generally incompatible with such closure systems.
A footwear tensioning system has been proposed for applying an instep force against an instep portion of a wearer's foot positioned in footwear in U.S. Pat. No. 7,818,899. In the '899 Patent, an article of footwear has an outer member, an inner lining, an instep member, and a lace. The outer member defines an outer surface of the item of footwear and the inner lining is positioned within the outer member. The instep member extends across an instep portion of the inner lining and the lace is routed through an anchor positioned adjacent the footbed and coupled to the instep member such that tension applied to the lace draws the instep member downward toward the footbed and rearward to the heel cup. However, the system described in the '899 Patent is not configured to constrict an outer shell of the footwear around the wearer's leg or to otherwise immobilize or inhibit movement of the footwear relative to the wearer's leg.
The foregoing is not intended to be an exhaustive listing of disadvantages of the prior art and needed improvements; it is only a sampling. In view of the foregoing and unlisted deficiencies in the prior art, a substantial need remains for improved footwear retention systems.